flower_cat update: 8:30...

[mdlbear]

... which is when visiting hours are over. She's now in a room -- I arrived at the hospital just as she was getting moved in, which resulted in a merry chase because she wasn't in the hospital database yet, and wasn't in her room in the ER either. By the time I found out where she was, the flower shop had already closed (an hour early -- grumble).

Why do they have to ask the same damned questions off a piece of paper, every time they admit someone to a hospital room? When you check in to emergency, they're already there on the screen in front of the triage nurse. We won't go into why the triage nurse goes through the same checklist as the one you answered 18 hours before.

Why, when two different doctors in ER supposedly ordered her a gastroenteritis meal, did they show up in her room with a regular meal never having heard of the BRAT diet.

Here's what I'm hoping will have happened when/if I pick up the Cat tomorrow:

• She will have been able to get out of bed and over to the bathroom and back under her own power.
• She will have eaten, with the correct diet, and not thrown up.
• Somebody will have leaned out her wound and changed the band-aid I put on it at 6am this morning.
• She will have gotten a sponge bath. We've told everyone that she had an episode of explosive diarrhoea just before her fall...
• A doctor will have looked at her injury and her blood work and OK'ed it.
• She will have received information on the care and feeding of her injury.
• She will have received information on what could go wrong, what to watch out for, and what to do about it.

And if they try to discharge her without all of those things having been done, I will raise all holy hell.

Comments

[ciarhwyfar.livejournal.com]

And if they try to discharge her without all of those things having been done, I will raise all holy hell.

Please do.

[roaringmouse.livejournal.com]

damn straight...

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Hospitals are horrible places. Like prisons, mortuaries and the battlefield, they are places where dead bodies are not unusual.

When I had a family, we had a rule that no one was ever to be left in a hospital alone. This motivated nurses to provide quality care, as we would very politely, and helpfully, and firmly make sure of it.

As for why they have to run the same checklist every time, especially in the ER, it is an effort to avoid medical error. This is one of the most common causes of death in hospitals. Competent staff have no faith in either the computers or in the paperwork, as neither can be trusted.

It sounds like you're doing the best you can with the situation, but I would suggest recruiting help if this goes on much more than a day or two longer. Good luck.

[ravan.livejournal.com]

Must be Kaiser. Do keep on them, leave prominent lists of questions and requirements, and get your doctor's email addy!

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

When I was in hospital to get Arthur out, I was given a diabetic diet. Well, the usual diabetic diet is NOT what should be given to a GDM. Turns out the nursing diet works fine--fewer carbos and more protein. I couldn't get Diets&Nutrition to give me a decaf black tea--the only herbal teas they had make me barf or spit.

Judging from seeing her at BayCon, I gather your conditions were met.

[mdlbear]

Yes, they did a pretty good job the third time around.

She's still in pain and popping happy pills every 6-7 hours, but seems to be healing. At least her digestion seems to be stabilizing.